Wagering on live events, such as sporting events, has traditionally involved bettors wagering on the outcome of a sporting event with a sports book (or “bookmaker”), with the outcome being balanced by odds or a spread or line. In addition, bettors may make “side bets” or “side wagers” involving various aspects of the sporting event, depending on the particular sport. For instance, a popular side wager in football and basketball is an “over/under” wager in which an individual bets on whether the total score in a game will be over or under a certain value set by the sports book. Accordingly, whether a bettor has won or lost a wager is conventionally determined after the sporting event has concluded. In contrast, in-play wagering involves wagering on events that occur within an active sporting event. For example, in a golf tournament, a bettor could wager on the drive distance of a participant; in a football game, a bettor could wager whether the next play will be a run play or a pass play; and in a downhill ski race, a bettor could wager on the split times for a participant along the course.
Conventional technology does not generally provide enough information about an active sporting event to allow for reliable in-play wagering. For instance, sporting event information is traditionally not recorded in chronological order in relation to the play-by-play (or “scoring”) data within the sporting event. Accordingly, sporting event information concerning particular players, for example, is not segmented into activities that are specific to each play occurring within a sporting event. Without such segmented information, bettors are not able to reliably wager on sporting event outcomes of each individual play (i.e., because the result of a previously play may affect the odds of subsequent plays).
In addition, bettors and sports books alike do not have access to sufficient broadcast images of the sporting event to have an adequate degree of certainty as to the outcome of in-play events. For example, in many sporting events, certain activities may not be recorded and/or broadcast, particularly in real time or substantially real time. In addition, recorded and/or broadcasted activities may not be presented in true chronological order. The live television presentation of a golf tournament, for instance, may not be chronologically accurate. For instance, a television producer, for the purpose of trying to create a compelling storyline or to present the most captivating action in the most efficient way possible, may editorialize and present recently “taped” segments out of true chronological order without making the distinction between live and recently taped known to viewers. This lack of chronological video broadcasts may be problematic for bookmakers as live data about a sporting event may be collected and relayed by bettors via computing devices, such as a smartphone device, back to sports books to place a wager.
Consequently, what is needed is a technological solution supporting real time live event data and video feeds in true chronological order to increase the reliability and integrity of in-play wagering for both bettors and bookmakers.